Gold-beating machine



which D. FROESCHAUER ET AL 1,797,136

GOLD BEATING vMACHINE Filed Au 5. 1927 4 sheets-sheet 1 INVENTORS FROESCHAUER RANDALL. Q; ikez'r attorneys R-MMM March 17, '1931.

GOLD BEATING MACHINE Filed Aug. 5, 1927 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS DANIEL FROESCHAUER SAMUEL RANDALL ill-air aii'oraqys March 1931- L D. FROESCHAUER ET AL v 1,797,136

GOLD BEATING MACHINE Filed Aug. 5. 1927 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 TIT-I11 minimum! QW F" i INVENTORS DANIEL FROESCHAUER a1 SAMUEL RANDALL Q7 their 'aiiorzzeys March 17, 1931. D. FROESCHAUER ET AL 7,

GOLD HEATING MACHINE DANIEL FROESCHAUER M SAMUEL RANDALL 4y Zfiea'r aiiorneys WWW Patented Mar. 17, 1931 UNETED STATES DANIEL FROESCHAUER AND SAMUEL RANDALL, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK; SAID PATENT OFF-ICE RANDALL ASSIGNOR TO SAID FROESGHA'UER GOLD-BEATING- MACHINE Application filed August 5, 1927. Serial No. 210,847.

7 On the drive shaft 13 is a cam 14 which by Our invention relates to machines for beating gold leaf. The ancient art of beating out gold into gold leaf is a painstaking one, and a simple machine which can take the place of hand heating by a good artisan has not heretofore been known. Our machine is designed to perform the beating in an improved manner and to place the blows in the proper places. At the sametime our machine is simpler than those heretofore known and much more adaptable in the range of work required in gold beating.

- In the drawings Fig. 1 is a side elevation of our machine with one side of the frame removed;

Fig. 2 is an end elevation showing the anvil and the hammer;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the anvil, slide and shifter;

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional elevation through the anvil on line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a sectional detail of the shifter ratchet;

Fig. 6 is a plan view of the mechanism operating the, hammer, slide and shifter;

Fig. 7 is an elevation detail of the mechanism operating the slide and shifter; and

Figs. 8, 9 and 10 are diagrams illustrating the successive positioning of the hammer blows on the packet and the size of the gold leaf.

Our machine is of the type in which the usual packet or mold, composed oflalternate layers of the fine membrane called goldbeaters skin and pieces cut from thin gold ribbon, is both reciprocated and revolved under the hammer to give the necessary change of position of the blows.

Referring now to the drawings, the frame of the machine is designated by the number 11 and the anvil on which the packet rests as 12. All moving parts of the machine are driven from a single drive shaft 18 which can be driven at a constant speed by any suitable means, 1

means of an arm 17 pivoted at 18, lifts and drops a hammer 15 mounted on the arm on the packet 16 once for every revolution of the drive shaft. This pivot point 18 is preferably so placed with relation to the packet on the anvil that the arm does not quite come down to a horizontal position when the hammer hits the packet and the face of the hammer is bevelled slightly-in order to meet the packet squarely. The arm 17 is weighted at its pivot end by two heavy plates 18a extending at right angles to the arm. These plates are placed so, that their center of gravity is always vertically between the pivot point 18 and the hammer 15 with the result that they always act as weights and tend to pull the hammer down. Pivotally fastened to the arm 17 between the hammer and its pivot point is a rod 21 sliding freely through a yoke 22 pivoted on the frame of the machine. On this rod is a compression spring 23 also tending to keep the hammer down.

The hammer is raised by the cam 14 acting V on the roller 19 and tipping up the plates 18a and the arm 17. When the roller falls off the hlgh point of the cam the hammer drops onto the packet delivering a blow accelerated by the compression spring 23 and weight of the plates 18a. There are no stops or other means receiving part of the blowthe packet being the only part preventing continuance of the movement. Even the cam 14 does not touch the roller. 19, its surface being too low to. reach the roller. The cam does not turn enough to engage the roller until after the hammer has hit the packet. In gold heating it is very important that there be no supplemental blows such as occur when the hammer is allowed to rebound. This re bound has been very hard to eliminate because the blow. struck is very powerful and the resilience of the arm tends to let the hammer chatter. In our machine the heavy plates 18a are arrested in their movement. by

the impact of the hammer on the packet and the momentum, thus arrested, strains the arm against rebound. The moment of this kinetic force is increased if the weight stands out rigid from the hammer arm a little distancepreferably being sure that the weight is not at such an angle as to pass the vertical before the hammer hits the packet.

This elimination of the rebound is an important feature and is one which our particular arrangement of parts carries out in a peculiarly efficacious manner.

Overlying the anvil is an open frame 24 in which a bottomless slide 25 is reciprocated by a short rod 27 fastened to the edge of the slide by a pin 26, the rod 27 being in turn pivoted to the upper end of a vertical lever 28. This lever 28 is fixed to the frame of the machine by a movable pivot 29 and it will'be apparent that moving the lower end of the lever 28 will cause the slide to reciprocate back and forth under the hammer; The

mechanism which operates thislever will be described later. Inside the slide 25 is a shifter mechanism comprising ring 30, with four notches on its inner edge adapted to hold the corners of the packet when the latter is laid on the anvil. On to of the shifter ringat its circumference, an unitary therewith, is a ring 31, having notches 32 cut through it. One edge of each of these notches is sloped and one perpendicular. overlying this notched ring 31 along one side of the slide is aguide plate 33 in which is a closed curved slot 34 positioned over the notched ring. In this slot moves a shifter catch 35 containing a spring pressed pawl 36 adapted toiengage one of the notches 32 and pull the shifter through an angular distance'when moving 1n one direction, but to slide over the notches when moving in the other. (See Fig. 5.) The'notched ring 31 and shifter ring 30 are locked from being pushed around in the wrong direction, by the pawl, when the latter is sliding over the notches 32, by 'means of a latch 37 engaging one ofa series of notches 38 in the edge of the notched ring. See Fig. The shifter catch 35 is moved back and forth by a pivotally connected rod'39 which in turn is operated by a shifter rod'40.

We shall now describe the mechanism controlling the reciprocation and rotation of the packet. The lever 28, which is connected to the slide as already described, has linked to its lower end, a rod 41 sliding freely in a support 41a on the frame of the machine. On the other end of this slide rod 41 is a roller 42, and fastened between the rod and the frame of the machine is atension spring 43 tending to hold the roller in contact with a circular slide cam 44. This slide cam is mounted tight on a shaft 45 with a gear 46 which we term the slide gear. This slide gear is driven from the drive shaft 13 by means of the: gear train consisting of the drive shaft gear 47, large speed reducing gear 48 and the two small speed reducing gears 49, 50. In this way the shaft 45 on which the slide cam is mounted turns at a rate which bears a constant time relation to the speed of operation of the hammer. The slide cam can be disengaged from its roller when necessary.

The cam means operating the rotary movement of the packet are distinct from the re ciprocatory means but are also operated from the drive shaft by gear-trains and therefore have definite speeds relative to the speed of operation of the hammer and of the reciprocation of the packet. In principlethe .shifter rod 40 can be similar to the slide rod 41 with a roller on its end and a tension spring holding the roller against a shifter cam. However, for practical reasons which we shall explain below, we prefer to have a double shifter rod which can be operated from a cam at'the end of either one' of'the double armsf Referring to Figure 70f the drawings, it willbe seen that one arm 40 is operated by a cam 51 fast on a shaft '52 which gear 53 drives from the drive "shaft by a gear train consisting of the drive shaft gear 47 and the large speed'reducing'gear 48. We prefer to call this cam 51 the auxiliary shifter cam The other arm 56 is operated by a cam 54 (see Figure'l) fast 'on'a shaft 55 with a'gear 56a ofthe same size as slide gear 46 and meshed therewithi e prefer to call this cam 54 the shifter 'c'am. The two arms 40 and. 56 are rigidly fixed with relationto each other andonly one of the two cams 51 and '54*is-in'contact'with its roller at any one time. 'The slide cam can also be disengaged from its roller when necessary. By these means the packet can be turned through a predetermined angular-distance at desired intervals of time by a quick motion acting'in bet-ween two blows of the hammer. It will be apparent that the packet can be reciprocated and rotated when the hammer is operating by means of the mechanism described.

7e havefound that by the use of our machine, gold leaf of commercial thinness can be produced in "three steps. In the first step the blows are all allowed to fall in the center of the packet (Fig. 8) by disengaging the slide cam 44 from its roller in any suitable manner. However, it is desirable to turn the packet around during this stage of beating and we prefer to use the single eccentric cam 51 (see Fig. 7) which has been designated by the name of auxiliary shifter cam, disengag ing the shifter cam 54 from its roller by any suitable methodpreferably removal.

The reciprocation. of the shifter-catch 35 by the auxiliary shifter cam gradually turns the shifter and the packet around, and the notches in the ring 31 on the shifter being sixteen in number and equally spaced,.=tl1e exact desired degree of revolution of the packet can be easily obtained. M This exact angular spacing is very valua- In the second and third steps of the heating, the packet is not only revolved but reciprocated and the blows are arranged to fall in straight lines radiating from the center. We prefer to have these lines radiate alternately to the corner of the packet and the middle of the side of the packet or middle edge-as it is sometimes called. This neces- .sitates the employment of a slide cam on shaft 45. In the second step we place the blows alternately in the center and toward the corner or middle edge according to which line is being pounded, coming back to the center for a blow after each stroke out toward an edge or corner. We term this the l in and 1 out step (see Fig. 9). To produce this movement we engage the roller on the slide rod 41 with the slide cam t4choosing for this purpose a cam with the number of teeth which will give a complete reciprocation for every two strokes of the hammer. In the machine shown in the drawings there are sixteen hammer blowsto one revolution of the slide cam shaft 45, so an eight tooth cam gives this one in and one out movement. (See Fig. 7.)

The auxiliary shifter cam 51 shown in the drawings is geared to revolve once for every two blows of the hammer thus being timed for use in the second step of the process as well as the first.

vVe term the third step of the process the 1 in and 3 out step, each radial line getting one blow in the center and three blows out toward the corner or edge according to which line is being beaten. (See Fig. 10.) To get four blows during a complete reciprocation on the machine shown in the drawings, we put on a slide'cam having four teeth, and to get a turning movement of the shifter after every four blows of the hammer. The face of each tooth determines the relative position of the blows in the line. We put a four tooth shifter cam on the shaft 55 which revolves at the same speed as the slide cam shaft 45 and then operate the shifter from that cam. (See Fig. l.)

Any condensing or spreading of the blows in a radial line can be obtained by moving the pivot point 29.

In this art the beating is always done on square pieces of material with the result that either the blows going to the corner must be separated a little more than those to the middle edge (see Figs. 9 and 10) or an extra blow must be given when beating the radial lines to the corners. 7e prefer the former method and therefore make every other tooth on our slide cams a little longer thus getting a slightly longer reciprocation when beating a radial line to a corner. It will be apparent howeverthat by using a slightly different gear train and shifter and slider cams with teeth of difierent widths the number of blows on successive radial lines can be varied. With variation in length of the successive reciprocatory'str'ol'res it may sometimes be necessary to vary the reach oif the slider catch to "prevent the pawl engaging one notch beyond that intended. This can be done by making alternate teeth on the shifter'cam a little lower. (See F ig. "I These teeth can be further modified if necessary to allow for any change in the length of reciprocation caused by moving pivot point 29, but We do not find that necessary if the machine is used in our three step process.

It will be very apparent that the changing of the circular cams which we have suggested might easily be accomplished by the employment of any ordinary gear shifting mechanism in the gear trains driving the cams.

It has been our experience that none of the machines designed in the past have been able to give clean, accurate beatings. Our machine is very simple and fully adjustable yet it gives the quality, accuracy, timing and placement of blows which has heretofore been attained by few artisans of the trade.

What we claim is:

1. In a goldbeating machine, a pivoted arm and a hammer on the free end thereof adapted to hit the packet to be beaten, and a spring attached to said arm and adapted to accelerate the fall of the hammer, in combination with a weight hung rigidly on the pivoted end of said arm between the pivot point and the hammer, a roller on said weight, and a cam adapted to engage said roller and successively lift and release said arm, said cam not engaging said roller after each release until after the hammer has hit the packet.

2. In a goldbeating machine, a hammer adapted to hit the packet to be beaten, operative means therefor comprising a pivoted arm on whose free end the hammer is mounted, and a weight acting on said arm between the pivot point and said hammer in combination with a rotating cam adapted successively to lift said arm and to allow the hammer to fall freely, said hammer and operative means being arrested in their fall solely by impact of the hammer on the packet.

3. In a goldbeating machine, a slide, cam means adapted to operate said slide, a rotating shifter inside said slide, spaced notches on said shifter, a pawl adapted to engage said notches when moving in one direction only, and reciprocatory cam means operating said pawl, said two cam means being operated in adjustably timed relation by a single driving means.

4:. A gold beating machine, comprising main driving means, hammer operatin means driven thereby, shifter cam means an slider carn' means, in combination With a packet slider, and a packet shifter, said shifter cam means comprising two cams and two shifter rods, said cams being adapted to operate said rods, said rods being connected for joint movement and being -operable from Whichever one of said shifter cams is in operative position to vary the motion of the shifter.- y

In testimony whereof We have signed our names to this specification.

DANIEL FROESCHAUER. SAMUEL RANDALL. 

